Ambient
Ambient is a style of music that puts atmosphere, tone and texture ahead of melody and rhythm, and can be listened to closely or left in the background.
Brian Eno named and defined it in the 1970s, most clearly with his 1978 album 'Ambient 1: Music for Airports'. Pieces are usually slow and without a beat, made from layers of synthesizer tone, piano, strings or flute and recorded natural sounds. Where most music asks for attention, ambient is designed to color a space and to reward attention only if you choose to give it.
Artists it is known for: Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Stars of the Lid.
- Family
- Chill & Lo-fi
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom, 1970s
- Also called
- ambient music
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 3%
About 2,800 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have ambient among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Ambient artists
Aphex Twin
Øneheart
my head is empty
Boards of Canada
.diedlonely
Max Richter
Antent
a vow
Ødyzon
WillixThe ambient artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.